


Thin Ice

by Lafeae



Series: Whump/Hurt/Comfort challenge [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Challenge Response, Date gone wrong, Drama & Romance, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Whump, post-dsod
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 05:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17616083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafeae/pseuds/Lafeae
Summary: A date  going sledding hadn’t been Kaiba’s idea of fun, but he liked seeing Yami smile——up until things go awry, and they hit a patch of thin ice, and Kaiba puts everything on the line to save his rival, his lover.—Prideshipping,





	Thin Ice

**Author's Note:**

> For xxxNamelessPharaohxxx Based on the prompt ‘Falling Through the Ice’

Sledding wasn't Kaiba's idea of a date. Dates consisted of things like coffee or dinner, not trekking through ankle high snow. It most certainly hadn't been his idea—they would have been much warmer. But he'd be damned if he didn't like the enraptured look on Yami's face as they wandered beneath the wispy, snow-laden branches of a dormant forest.

"It's so different," Yami said again and again. "So different."

"You've experienced winter," Kaiba replied.

"Yes, but not in my own body."

Pride welled in Kaiba's chest. He never tired of hearing those words, and he would prompt Yami to say them at that any given moment, especially when he was awed by the smell, or the taste, or the touch of something. Because pulling the Pharaoh back into their dimension had taken every ounce of his patience and sanity, and he would be damned proud that he had managed to bring Yami back!

Yami was proud, too. Or so said the coy, wordless glance he threw back. "Perhaps I...forgot. Or maybe was numb when I was here. I don't know."

Kaiba said nothing. There had been those lapses. Crossing dimensions had left some scars on Yami in a way that hadn't happened when he was attached to Yugi. He'd lost language, memories. To the naked eye he was fine, functioning, and aware of the era he was in. But somewhere, feelings and experiences had vanished.

That was probably the reason for the dates.

Yami knew there was passion between them but hadn't initially been sure where A and B met. Where the plentiful visits to duel the pharaoh had turned into subtle romantic feelings. Kaiba tried to understand, and he went along with most of what Yami said to try and bring him up to speed with the world and their relationship. What he didn't understand was sledding. There were plenty of other ways experience the joy of winter and snow that didn't involved sledding—but Kaiba couldn't tell Yami no. He made Yami promise another duel afterwards.

Yami took Kaiba's hand and squeezed tight. "C'mon, it'll be dark before we find the good hill. Mokuba said it was over here somewhere."

"'Good' probably means 'dangerous'."

"I'm sure it's fine," Yami chided. "He says this is fun, so I want to give it a try."

Kaiba sighed. "It's not much further."

It was nice to feel the warmth of Yami's hand on his, even through the leather gloves, and the way that it squeezed while it looked for more warmth from Kaiba. They kept hip to hip, elbow to elbow, in a way that they shared all the warmth between them. He wondered how Yami was going to feel when he got a back full of snow after the toboggan flew out from beneath him. Mokuba had gotten this silly idea in his head. He would get to experience every bit of winter's beauty—and wrath—all at the same time.

It wasn't long before they found a nest of hills bunched together in a clearing of trees, save for animal tracks, the snow was untouched.

Yami forced Kaiba to the top, jogging the whole way up, and then stopped to stare at the frozen wonderland from the peak.

"Well?"

"Shh."

Kaiba huffed and crossed his arms, pretending not to enjoy the star-struck look in Yami's eyes as he drank everything in.

After several moments, Yami laid down the little, wood toboggan and situated himself on top of it, planting his feet. He looked up to Kaiba. "Ride with me?"

"You go."

"Come on, Seto."

"I'm fine up here."

Yami rolled his eyes. "Fine then. I suppose we just won't duel later then."

Kaiba grimaced before setting behind Yami, leaving his own sled behind on the peak. It would have been better if they were racing, but he didn't have time to suggest it before Yami kicked them down the slope and flung back into his chest. Kaiba wrapped his arms around the smaller man, pressing him close and enjoying the touch, as they went flying down the bumpy hillside.

They skidded far off into the clearing, landing sideways in heavy packs of snow. Yami laughed, brushing it from his golden bangs and off his sleeves.

"I see why Mokuba likes this!" Yami said. He stood up and bolted back towards the slope, nearly falling in the slick mix of ice and snow they had landed on. Kaiba bent down and wrapped his arm around Yami's waist to help him back up.

"Be careful. It's slick here."

Yami blushed, curling his arm around Kaiba's. "I see that."

—

For the next hour, they trekked up and down the hill, sometimes riding together, sometimes racing each other to the bottom. If anything, Kaiba did it for Yami's laughter. He enjoyed that Yami enjoyed it, and would put up with it to see the pharaoh's chapped cheeks in a permanent smile. That, and the fact that the cold made him want to curl up against Kaiba even more.

It wasn't long before the sun began to set.

"We should go. It's getting late," Kaiba said.

"One more," Yami replied. Kaiba groaned. "C'mon, ride with me one more time. Then we can...order takeaway, maybe curl up by the fireplace for the duel?"

"Fireplace?"

"Yes. Me, you, a blanket?"

"It's not really an ideal way to duel..."

But Kaiba would be remiss if he didn't admit to liking to idea. His cheeks and chest were aflame just thinking about it. Yami caught him thinking, his saucy grin said as much, and yanked Kaiba up the hill again. They careened down the hill faster than they had all day, catching a rut of packed and flattened snow from their multiple runs, and slid far into the wide clearing between the trees. They only stopped when they wiped out somewhere in the thick patch of ice and snow.

Aching, Kaiba picked himself up and shook the snow off his coat. He shivered involuntarily as the snow in had wormed it's way into his pants and shoes slid against his bare skin.

This was enough. He was done for the day. "Get up, Yami. It's a long walk back to the car."

Yami didn't follow. He laid spread eagle in the snow and gazed up at the dapple-grey sky ensconced in tree branches.

"I'll catch up. I wanna watch it start snowing."

"You'll catch frostbite."

"And you'll warm me up," Yami countered.

Touché.

Kaiba picked up the toboggan and headed back towards trees, becoming lost in the idea of being curled up with Yami in front of a fireplace with nothing between them but a blanket between them. Perhaps too lost, because he almost didn't hear the ice begin to snap beneath his boots.

But Yami did. He shot upright and went to pick himself up as snow and ice buckled beneath him.

"Kaiba?" He called. Frantically, Yami swept snow aside and dug to the bottom of the frozen layers until his hand touched pure ice. Even the lightest touch of his hand had water burbling beneath the surface and seeping through small spider-web patterns that snaked along the ice.

No. Oh no.

"Kai—!"

All the air left Yami's lungs at once, and he plunged beneath the ice with little warning, unable to think, unable to move. It felt as if someone was repeated stabbing through as he tried to move his fingers or legs just to propel through the water. He kept sinking further and further from the thin hole of shimmering light. The sky had disappeared, and despite his wildest efforts, he never got any closer to the waning light. His body was heavy, his clothes holding him down like shackles as they stiffened at his joints.

Yami squeezed his eyes closed. His will to fight was strong but his body was refusing. The longer he held his breath, the dimmer his vision became. He succumbed to the numbness. The knives in the water had drained him of blood and wrapped him in a thick blanket of slush and ice. He spasmed outwards, taking one last look up.

Kaiba.

Did Kaiba fall in?

There were cracks forming beneath the opaque snow. He twisted and turned, opening his eyes and hoping not see anyone else in the darkness. He prayed that Kaiba hadn't fallen in, too.

In a last thought, his last fight to try and kick to the surface, Yami lamented how useless it had been to bring him back to this dimension. How few weeks, and months, he spent in this body, this realm, only to have it torn from him so abruptly. He hadn't spent enough time with Joey, or Téa, or Tristan, or...

Yugi. Poor Yugi...Kaiba would have to tell Yugi.

Kaiba couldn't take anymore losses. The gone and back again pharaoh who he'd obsessively wanted and chased. No more duels; no more dinners; no more dates.

Another stab of pain stuck beneath his ribs, and he squeezed his eyes closed, sure he had seen something swimming in the darkness. He reached for it, or at least thought he had. He wasn't even sure if his limbs were attached anymore.

In his last thought, he considered that maybe, just maybe, Kaiba could cross dimensions again.

—

"Yami! Yami this isn't funny!"

Kaiba's heart had stopped as soon as the ice sank below the surface. In one blink, he saw Yami jolt up and scramble to stand, but he was gone in the next, swept beneath the surface of the shattering ice. Snow fell into the small, bubbling hole near the centre of the lake.

This wasn't happening.

"Yami!"

The icy water staggered him as soon as he entered, numbing his toes as it invaded his shoes. Yami was twenty, thirty yards out...the water was all consuming there, he couldn't imagine how painful it.

But that didn't matter.

Steeling his resolve, Kaiba unbuttoned his coat and threw it on a tree branch. Yami would something warm as soon as he was pulled out. They both would.

Before submerging, Kaiba sent out an emergency signal to Roland so they would be found as quickly as possible. After, he ran across the thicker spots of ice which gave out beneath his weight, dropping him into waist deep water more than once.

God.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes. Time had been irrelevant, it may as well as been hours for all his body could tell, though he was acutely aware that Yami hadn't come back up. He could survive eleven minutes without air if he held his breath; if the cold hadn't rendered him unconscious.

Once he reached the original breach, he sucked in all the air he could manage and dove in. Regret washed over him immediately. He broke the surface of the water unwilling, survival instinct forcing him away from the water. Would he make it back to the shore if—when—he found Yami?

Those questions had to be discarded. He hadn't slaved away to bring Yami to this world only to lose him like this. Success was the only option.

Plunging forward, Kaiba swam down quickly as the cutting mix of slush and water enveloped him in a cocoon of raw pain and puckered misery. His skin would have rather sloughed off than dealt with this. He couldn't see further than his own hand, and heavier chunks of ice floated beneath the surface.

How far, how far, how far...?

His lungs hurt, his throat felt like it was filled with blood. They were losing something when they got done with this.

Think of the fireplace, think of the fireplace, think of the fireplace...

There! It had to be Yami. The mass of colourful blond bangs floating like a cloud in mess of craggy rocks. Kaiba gasped, covering his mouth with his hand as water assaulted his sinuses. He twisted around in the water, his head floating as unconsciousness willed itself on him.

But not before he locked fingers with Yami's and shook him. What skin he could see was whiter than the snow.

Kaiba pulled the chilled body into his arms, resting Yami's chin on his shoulder. His strength was mostly gone, his muscles little better than piles of mush beneath his skin. He wasn't even sure that he'd found a rock or a lakebed to kick his feet off of; the frigid water may have driven him to madness, and for all he knew he was holding onto a rock and praying that he'd found his rival, his lover.

They shot up from beneath the surface in seven seconds. Kaiba counted, wishing it was sooner. Weakly, he treaded through the slush and frost, crawling through snow to a solid portion of the ice and dragging Yami with him until he collapsed beneath the tree with his coat hanging from it.

Success.

But he didn't have the energy to reach for the coat to cover them.

Wrapped in his arms was the languid, bloodless pharaoh. No more of a shell than an android running without an AI. His lip tinged purple, his hair and eyelashes solidifying in odd shapes of frost. Kaiba pressed Yami close to him holding onto one of his hands that had lost a glove somewhere along the way. His veins were glowing, pooling into the baby blue half-crescents of his nails.

They would make it. He shivered and discarded any negative thought. Roland would come in time, and then they would sit by the fireplace wrapped beneath a blanket. They wouldn't even have to duel.

The tiniest breath blew against his face. Kaiba smiled.

"Yami look," he said, voice cracking. "It's snowing...look."

**Author's Note:**

> You can...take this anyway you want. I like to be hopeful, but the ending fit best here I thought. Tell me what you think.


End file.
